Sanusi Ohiare, a governorship aspirant in Kogi State under the All Progressives Congress (APC), has threatened to sue the party if a governorship candidate is announced without a proper primary election.
WITHIN NIGERIA learnt that Ohiare issued the threat following claims that election officials were nowhere to be found during the primary election.
On Thursday, Ohiare refused to withdraw from the race after the state Governor, Yahaya Bello, endorsed the state’s former auditor-general for the ticket to be chosen by local governments.
Despite a large turnout of voters in the primary election, the governorship candidate told reporters in his ward on Friday that no elected officials were present.
According to Ohiare, a similar situation has been reported in approximately 238 wards across the state.
He said;
If we are not careful, this is what is playing out again in Kogi State. As you recall, we were meant to do a delegate election but because of similar problems or lack of congresses and just basically shrouding everything in secrecy, and lack of transparency, people went to court and the court annulled it.
Now they said we should do direct primaries and the same thing is playing out. We’ve been here since 8 AM to vote and everybody is out here in their numbers but then there are no election materials or election officials and then we are just sitting down here.
And the report I am getting from all over the state, in over 238 wards, is that no election is taking place. We have witnesses and evidence and definitely, this is not going to stand.
So, what I have done is quickly write a letter of complaint to the chairman of the primary election committee, Governor Bello Matawalle of Zamfara, and I am hoping to hear from him. If they don’t, I will escalate it to the highest levels of the party and if I don’t hear anything, we’ll have to go to court because the election is supposed to be about the government of the people and for the people.